Slow USB3 Backup - No faster than USB2

[MSD]

NFS Copy = Job never completes and just sits saying “In Progress”. Actual files completed 20mins ago. I had to attempted shutting down the NAS to clear the job. Shutdown fails and NAS stays on. Disconnected the USB drive, cancelled the backup job and retry Shutdown and Poweroff. Nope NAS stays on! HDD lights go off but Fan stays on. Very weird. Nothing would shut it off and had NO choice but to do a Hard Reset by keeping my finger on Power button for 10Secs. Great I say…………………….why do things have to be hard. Last thing I want to deal with is NAS not shutting down!

As this thread topic is about USB3 Speeds, I won’t bother try troubleshoot this “In Progress” issue here, Nor the issue with NAS refusing to Shutdown. Other than to say NFS can’t be used to test speeds as job never completes (RAIDiator 4.2.15)
Off I go to Log above job elsewhere. Great, just great!

[mdgm]

There should be an option to backup to a USB disk in Frontview backup. You should use this rather than trying to use e.g. NFS for your testing.

[MSD]

There should be an option to backup to a USB disk in Frontview backup. You should use this rather than trying to use e.g. NFS for your testing.

Yeap. I spotted that and that's what is in progress now. Silly me for not using that option to begin with!.

[MSD]

I'm not sure that comparing USB3 Flash with a USB3 hard drive is a fair comparison. It'll be interesting to read your results MSD.

Preliminary Test In – Totally Unexpected Results
Conditions:
An Empty directory is placed on the External USB Drive call “Test”. Backup job is setup on Frontview to copy contents of a single directory containing 10.23GB Data from Share on NAS.
After each backup, I clear the logs and also empty the ‘Test” directory on the USB Drive in preparation for the next test backup.

Test 1: USB3 Disk via USB3 Port (Formatted as EXT3) (10990532408 bytes) (10.23GB) Via Direct from NAS Share to USB_HDD_X. Time = 11Mins (15.87MB/sec)
Test 2: USB3 Disk via USB3 Port (Formatted as EXT3) (10990532408 bytes) (10.23GB) Via RSYCN from NAS Share to USB_HDD_X. Time = 12Mins (14.55MB/sec)
BEST RESULT was original Test earlier today: Same as Test 2 above but drive was formatted as NTFS. Time = 09 Mins (19.40MB/sec)
Test 3: I repeated an Rsync using my USB2 Drive also done earlier today I needed to confirm that NAS hadn’t stuffed up in some way. It hadn’t.
Result = USB2 Disk via USB3 Port (Formatted as NTFS) (10990532408 bytes) (10.23GB) Via RSYCN from NAS Share to USB_HDD_X. Time = 9Mins (19.40MB/sec)

Observations:
1 – NTFS formatted disks were far quicker than EXT3. By an exact margin of 25% if my calcs are correct.
2 - USB3 was no faster than USB2 (when both set as NTFS) The USB3 Drive is slower than the USB2 Drive now that the USB3 drive is formatted as EXT3.

Whats going on I have to ask myself. Should I be calling Netgear Support for an explaination?
Suggestions anybody. I am happy to run further tests.

[mdgm]

If you have a PC with a USB 3 port and have the drive formatted to use NTFS what's your performance like with that?

[MSD]

If you have a PC with a USB 3 port and have the drive formatted to use NTFS what's your performance like with that?

I know, thats the problem, I don't! I can't eliminate the possability of the USB3 Drive being "Faulty". I need to buy a USB3 card to rule this out which is very annoying expecially if it proves that the Drive is fine and NAS is somehow dodgy.

It still doesn't explain the how EXT3 being slower that NTFS formatted Drives. Both USB3 & USB2 Drives.

[TeknoJnky]

you can actually use backup job local share to local share without using nfs

just select the usb_hdd_x share as the destination

[MSD]

you can actually use backup job local share to local share without using nfs
just select the usb_hdd_x share as the destination

That is how I ran the above Tests...............all done via local share as per described. I only ran an Rsync as a comparison.

[MSD]

Has anybody else got a USB3 drive that they can confirm is a lot faster i.e.tested on a PC.
More important, do you have a USB3 ReadyNAS. If you could then conpare speed against a backup on the USB3 Port (Front) vr. USB2 port (Rear).

[mdgm]

You shouldn't need to get a USB3 card just yet. Your not close to maxxing out USB2 so you could hook the disk up to a USB port on your PC and try it out there.

[MSD]

You shouldn't need to get a USB3 card just yet. Your not close to maxxing out USB2 so you could hook the disk up to a USB port on your PC and try it out there.

I am not sure what you mean/suggesting? Keep in mind I am also testing using a seperate USB2 Drive. Results for both are the same. What is it that I would be looking to test on my PC?

EDIT: I think you are saying that regardless of using a USB2 or USB3 drive the output on the Pro2 should be higher than reported (19MB/s). In turn test a file from PC to see what throughput I get i.e. to ensure USB Drive is capable of running higher than this. I'll try that.

Cheers

[MSD]

Ok. On my 3 Year old notebook the max transfer speed I can get on either the USB2 OR USB3 drives is 16MB/s (57GB per hour). Same speed on both drives. Note they are connected to USB2 port. I don't have a USB3 port. Looks like I am being bottle necked. Need to try a newer notebook. I have a few!
External Drives are both 5400RPM. Files being copied are .AVI format so being compressed may slow the process down.

In theory a USB2 is meant to be capable of 480 megabits/s = 60MB/s and USB3 5000 megabits/s 625MB/s. Is that right. No PC would manage that surely, even if using 10000RPM Drives (if there was such a thing in USB format).

What speeds in general is anybody else getting when copying 10GB Data (say lots of .AVI's) using USB2 on a PC.
Ok, I understand that there are many factors eg. Antivirus software, other items running on PC, USB drive Speed etc.
ALSO and probably most important is the external drive being used. Some of the cheap ones will have crappy IDE/Sata controllers and restrict the speed!

I used Syncback Pro to do the copying and based it on it's time.

[claykin]

What model USB3 harddisk do you have? I'm surprised it has a 5400rpm disk inside. Is this an enclosure you purchased separately? Which USB3 bridge chip does that external disk use?

[claykin]

Do you have fast USB writes enabled on the Frontview Performance tab?

[emoacht]

I also tested the speed of USB3.0 port of my Ultra 2 (RAIDiator 4.2.15).

Conditions

• Connected with: USB3.0 portable enclosure (controller is asmedia ASM1051) in which Travelstar 5K500.B installed. I dont have USB3.0 port in my PC yet, but I found other person's case where a SSD in this enclosure shows around 180MB/s sequential read and write. And this HDD marks around 80MB/s read and write when connected to my PC's SATA port. The combination of this enclosure and HDD performs around 33MB/s in read and 27MB/s in write when connected to my PC's USB2.0 port.
• Transfer method: Backup jobs set out in Ultra 2's Frontview
• Files to be transfered: 6 Acronis True Image's image files (highly compressed) totaling around 31.5GB.

Test 1 (HDD formatted by Ext3, Fast USB disk writes disabled)
NAS --> USB enclosure: 2362sec (13.75MB/s)
USB enclosure --> NAS: 652sec (49.81MB/s)

Test 2 (HDD formatted by Ext3, Fast USB disk writes enabled)
NAS --> USB enclosure: 2340sec (13.88MB/s)
USB enclosure --> NAS: 651sec (49.89MB/s)

Test 3 (HDD formatted by NTFS, Fast USB disk writes enabled)
NAS --> USB enclosure: 1778sec (18.27MB/s)
USB enclosure --> NAS: 699sec (46.46MB/s)

Tentative Conclusion

• Write speed from Ultra 2 to USB3.0 enclosure is no faster than USB2.0, while read speed from USB3.0 enclosure to Ultra 2 is faster than USB2.0.
• Effect of fast USB disk writes option is negligible.
• Ext3 is, in terms of write speed, slower than NTFS.

Well, the performace of USB3.0 port of Ultra 2 at this moment is nothing like what I had expected. I hope coming new RAIDiator would show some improvement.